From the beginning...

I know, I know, I have an about me page already. This is a more in-depth introduction, so grab a mug of your strongest black coffee (just how I like it) or red wine if it's getting late and hang out for a bit.

Many of you know I ride and show, what isn't a popular fact is that I didn't grow up in a performance horse home. I didn't see reined cow horses until I was in college. My father started riding a pony at his family's dairy farm as a boy in Wisconsin, that's where my equine journey started.

Mr. Olson, Kurt, The Mule Man, my father attended college in North Dakota where he made some friends from Wyoming. Over his summer's he ranched with his new friends and became a cowboy just as he had dreamed. After college he began guiding pack trips in the Book Cliffs of Utah, where his love of mules began.

As he started training and selling mules and horses, his horsemanship developed to make the job easier. When my sister and I were young, he took a ranch job in Wyoming where his skills only continued to grow. And yes, he tried to raise me on the backs of many horses.

When I was old enough to join 4-H that is the route we took. My dad's friends showed in the Reined Cowhorse but he thought it fitting that I do EVERY event in 4-H and sharpen my skills before focusing on one discipline. From there I took english lessons, rode junior horses, competed in local gymkhanas and leaned to back a trailer so that I could drive myself to the arena if he was too busy.

Someone convinced me not to take a horse to college, but I was in equine management by my second semester. I joined the horse judging team during my sophomore year and was able to see that professionals really do make a living training horses ( I was always told that this wasn’t possible). Then I had to get my own truck and trailer to take my horse to college.

I was a member of the Ranch Horse team and quickly fell in love with the idea of showing reined cow horses. When I graduated UW I attended LCCC in hopes of ending their equine training program on an internship with a NRCHA trainer, and did just that.

After a year in Oregon working under Jim Spence, I decided that the West Coast wasn’t the place for me, and horse training might not be the lifestyle I want. With that I moved to Texas in hopes of using my B.S. in Ag Communications and beginning my own freelance writing and creative business.

Here we are! I’ve been published in Cutting Horse Chatter, The Wrangler Horse and Rodeo News, Paint Horse Journal, and a few others. I also write some poetry, but that’s a story for another time.

In this blog you’ll find tips, tricks, poetry, lists and all things equine related. I really hope you’ll find something useful or learn a little.

^ There's a link to some great coffee up there, if your interested I highly suggest it!

*I have recently become an Amazon affiliate so I may get some dough if you click an Amazon link in my blog. If you’d rather not, I can’t blame you! *